The present invention relates to feeding arrangements in general and, more particularly, to a feed chute arrangement for use in feeding fiber material to a textile machine, especially but not exclusively to carding machines.
From the German Published Pat. No. 1,510,323, it is known to provide pivotably mounted flaps which are arranged in a louver-like fashion to cover a perforated wall which is located between the interior of a feed chute and a return flow chute or chamber. This expedient is employed in order to obtain successive filling up of the return flow chute.
On the other hand, the German Published patent application No. 3,239,524 discloses a flap used in a device for feeding fibers to a carding machine. The provision of the flap serves for prevention of variation in the underpressure in the air outflow or output chamber which adjoins a perforated wall of a collecting chamber for the fiber material.
Experience with arrangements of the type described above has shown that they leave much to be desired, particularly as far as their operating characteristics are concerned. Thus, for instance, if it is attempted to discontinue or temporarily interrupt the operation of the feeding arrangement, the fiber material continues to be delivered into the interior of the feed chute, resulting in overfilling of such feed chute and undesired compaction of such material, which causes problems during the resumption of the operation of the feeding arrangement. Moreover, even during the normal operation of the feeding arrangement, that is, without interruption, there is a tendency for the accumulated fiber material to vary in density from time to time and from one region of the fiber body to another, primarily since it is impossible in the conventional feeding arrangements to control the amount of the fiber material which enters the interior of the feed or feeding chute. All this, of course, is very disadvantageous since it adversely affects the operation not only of the feeding arrangement itself, but also of the equipment or textile machine to which the feeding arrangement feeds the fiber material.